Disco followers who keep in mind the halcyon days of the early Eighties would immediately recognise the decision to arms of one of many period’s largest hits. Kool & the Gang‘s lead singer James “J.T.” Taylor asked succinctly: “How you gonna do it if you really don’t wish to dance, by standing on the wall?”
The music, after all, was “Get Down On It,” one among many soulful dance tunes that helped give the New Jersey outfit an excellent run of singles successes — particularly within the UK, the place they’d now solid a detailed relationship with followers of their slick model. So a lot so, the truth is, that the brand new music was rush-released there because the second single from their new Something Special album, even with the primary, “Steppin’ Out,” nonetheless standard. It could be two months earlier than “Get Down On It” would present on the Billboard Hot 100.
Kool & the Gang had been on a run that had given them 4 Top 20 British singles in simply over a 12 months and 6 Top 30s in simply over two. That sequence included two extra of their largest signature tracks in “Ladies Night” and “Celebration.” Now got here “Get Down On It,” which entered the UK bestsellers on the final chart of 1981, dated December 26, and went on to be the group’s largest hit thus far there, peaking at No.3.
The music carried a collective writing credit score for the entire band and their producer, Brazilian Eumir Deodato. Like “Celebration,” it gained silver certification within the UK and likewise grew to become a Top 10 hit in Holland, Belgium, after which in America. It went to No.1 on South Africa’s Springbok Radio.
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British audiences could have been sluggish to select up on Kool and the Gang, whose early US hits made no headway there. But the group’s love affair with the UK has now lasted greater than 40 years, and burned brightly all through the Eighties, with 11 extra chart entries there till 1987. Four of them had been Top 10 favorites: “Ooh La La La (Let’s Go Dancin’),” the double-sided “Joanna”/“Tonight,” “(When You Say You Love Somebody) In The Heart,” and “Cherish.”
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